The present invention relates in general to messaging systems, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for creating custom user profiles for filtering and prioritizing messages to be retrieved from a message server.
It is recognized that users who dial up a data communication network for retrieving mixed-media messages, including electronic mail and voice mail, are not always able or willing to receive all of their messages. For example, if a recipient has only a telephone, and therefore can only receive voice mail, if time is limited he or she may only wish to receive high priority messages or short messages, etc. According to most present day voice mail messaging systems, the user is required to listen to each message, and decide whether to save or discard the message before listening to the next message. Some systems offer a xe2x80x9cskipxe2x80x9d feature or fast forward. For e-mail messaging systems, all messages are down loaded, which consumes time and results in additional on-line charges. For e-mail messaging systems having text-to-speech converters, time and costs are incurred in listening through all of the message subjects as they are read back to the user.
It is known in the prior art to utilize a software agent to apply selection criteria to the attributes of a message. In some cases, the attributes are added by the sender and in others they are derived from the received information by the agent. In the most sophisticated prior art systems, rules are applied to the content of the message. Attributes of a message can include information about the sender, about the recipient, about its content or about its delivery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,643 (Sattare et al) teaches a stored user profile that allows the user interface to voice messaging to be reconfigured according to the user""s preferences. The user profile can be retrieved, used and edited using a DTMF pad.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,354 (Scannell et al) teaches sorting and prioritizing of electronic mail by applying rules to the content of a message. The user created rules are modified using a computer keyboard.
In the context of a wide area network, PCT/US96/06568 (Finney et al) describes a method of delivering electronic messages according to the recipient""s preferences. In this prior art system, it is assumed that recipient""s preferences will include forwarding instructions and that it is therefore desirable for the profile to be applied at the distribution point. Thus, this reference is relevant for teaching storage of recipient preferences to modify delivery.
In PCT/US95/05070 (Rose et al) a xe2x80x9cprofile of interestsxe2x80x9d is stored for each user having access to an information system. In this patent, the criterion of xe2x80x9crelevancexe2x80x9d of the information is taught. It is suggested that the technique could be used to filter e-mail. The system of Rose et al uses sorting based on inspection of content. Thus, upon accessing the system from a remote location, a message server retrieves the user""s profile from a user database. This profile is used to rank the messages stored within the system such that all of the messages addressed to that user are ranked and only those messages that are particularly pertinent to the user""s interest are highly ranked, whereas junk mail messages are given a low ranking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,540 (Greco et al) teaches integrated voice mail and e-mail systems, such as are generally known in the art.
According to the present invention, a software agent is provided for allowing a user to set up different xe2x80x9cprofilesxe2x80x9d which are applicable to particular situations. Thus, when a user is at a remote location, a xe2x80x9cprofilexe2x80x9d can be selected for pre-screening messages and phone calls so that only messages which comply with the criteria of the selected xe2x80x9cprofilexe2x80x9d are passed on to the user. The criteria is completely selectable by the user, and may include priority, length of message, sender, etc.
Thus, whereas dialable user profiles are known in the art, as discussed above, as are interfaces from mixed media messaging and schemes for sorting documents based on parameters such as content, author, priority, etc., there is no discussion in the prior art of permitting a different user profile for selecting and sorting messages each time the messaging system is accessed, so that the profile can be changed by the user to suit the user""s particular situation.